Rouhani says Netanyahu threats over nuclear program are laughable

Iran's president-elect says Tehran's warnings of retaliation to an attack on its nuclear facilities has deterred Israel.

Hassan Rouhani lauging370.
(photo credit:REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi)

Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani has dismissed Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu's threats of a military strike on the Islamic Republic as laughable, the French news agency AFP reported on Wednesday, citing the Iranian media.

“When some (the United States and
Israel) say that all options are on the table and when a miserable
regional country (Israel) says such things, it makes you laugh,” AFP
quoted Rouhani as saying in an address to Iran-Iraq war veterans.

He
added that Iranian warnings of retaliation to an attack had deterred
Israel from carrying out any such strike on the Islamic Republic.

Asked when he would make a decision to attack on CBS News’s Face the Nation, Netanyahu responded: “I can tell you I won’t wait until it’s too late.”

Rouhani
this week also reaffirmed the Islamic Republic's support of Syria and
the Islamist Shi'ite militant group Hezbollah as he hailed their efforts
in their plight against Israel, according to Iranian media.

In a
response to a congratulatory message from Hezbollah leader Hassan
Nasrallah, Rouhani on Tuesday lauded Hezbollah's activities in Lebanon
and against Israel, according to Iran's Mehr news agency.

"The
Arab and Muslim people... who have always seen the Islamic republic as a
supporter of the oppressed... and every fighter who resists for God,
consider you today a beacon of hope," AFP quoted the militant group as
saying.

In Nasrallah's original message, he congratulated Rouhani
for winning the trust of the Iranian nation in a “political epic,”
Iran's Press TV reported.

Rouhani, in response to a similar
message from Syrian President Bashar Assad, also asserted that the
relations between Tehran and Damascus demonstrated their determination
to confront the common enemies of the two allies, especially Israel,
semi-official Fars news agency on Tuesday cited the Iranian
President-elect as saying.

The incoming Iranian president also
touched on the civil crisis faced by Syria reiterating the Islamic
Republics' favor of the Damascus regime.

Rouhani said the
opposition of the Syrian people strengthened Assad's forces and the
Damascus government, stressing that the country could overcome its
current conflict.

“The great and resistant Syrian nation will go
past the present stage and fully preserve its independence and
territorial integrity,” Fars quoted him as saying.